Chapter 13 (1/2)

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Once Zhao Youyue gained a clear understanding of the ways to bow out from the manga, she felt more at ease in the world of the Dimensional Gate. If worse comes to the worst that she might have gotten bored of staying in the literary world, she can simply bow out by silently committing suicide. Alternatively she could spend money in the real world and have the author abruptly end the work. Some unscrupulous authors will surely be willing to do so.

Come to think of it, Zhao Youyue felt that her current life in the “Pure Romance” world seemed rather satisfying, allowing her to live the life of an elite scholar to her heart’s content. While she was busy learning, she was still able to watch the drama unfold. Using a “caring for the retarded” [1] kind of gaze to observe the interactions between the hero and the girls. This seemed kind of awkward and hilarious in both ways.

As everyone knows, the characters within the manga world tend to perform in an awfully exaggerated style. Occasionally the characters will be shrunk into Chibi versions of themselves. Of course, one will find it very entertaining when they read mangas from the real world. However, immersing one’s self into the manga world, could lead to awkwardness through the exaggerated behaviours and the tone of the characters speech content. This situation could usually be seen among the interactions between various characters. Strangely, every side character did not seem to find it out of place. Instead, they fit into the theme perfectly… Well, it seems like Zhao Youyue was “the only sober person around where everybody else is drunk”.

Nevertheless, it did not matter. She was quite happy being the background board anyway. Her pressure of studying in the real world was remedied. It was her hard work in the world of Dimensional Gate that helped her in solving the junior high mathematics question during the previous pre-test when school reopened. Otherwise, she would have been embarrassed for sure.

Due to the fact that Zhao Youyue’s cell phone was confiscated, she did not manage to tip this manga. Although later on the same day she spent 8,000 RMB to purchase the newly launched eighth-generation Fruit Phone, she started feeling heartache afterwards. There are still more than twenty days to go for this month. If she kept on wasting money like this, she might end up screwing up and becoming a dirt poor young lady. This is not good.

Zhao Youyue initially thought she was very loaded. But as she spent her money, she discovered that there is never such a thing as having too much money. It would be nice if she could have the ability to earn money on her own. Otherwise she felt somehow uneasy spending her parents’ money like that.

So she only went to the manga bookstore and purchased four issues of “Pure Romance” standalone books. This can be considered a form of support to the manga’s creator.

Patiently, she finished reading the series page by page. It felt rather fascinating when she saw the character which she played, “Xu Jing” appeared in the manga, silently acting as the background board.

She sometimes cannot help but wonder, if indeed she became the main character in the manga, how will it appear in the actual manga in real life?

Truth be told, if it was not because she has entered the world of this manga, she would not bother to read this manga at all even though she admired its artistic style very much. It is just how she is – someone who has appearance complex.

As for the plot and characters, she found it all rather dull. Firstly, it was because she did not really like harem manga-s, instead she preferred those with single character-pair or even those without character-pairing. Secondly, the useless hero characters in harem manga-s are sickening. Well, how could anyone be sure that this kind of hero, who had “softness” as his biggest strength gain the likings of so many beautiful young girls? Could they act in a promiscuous manner and flirt around without scruple? The last reason was the hero’s indecisiveness. Even towards the very end of the manga, he will still be unable to decide on who his true love really is, let alone having sex. He simply is an utterly impotent and herbivorous [2] boy.

Zhao Youyue would rather spend her time reading harem mangas with typical scumbag heroes just like Itou Makoto, who slept with everyone and eventually getting caught cheated, chopped up and murdered. The violent and gory conclusion at the end was really gratifying…